In the case of LED chips, a highest possible total luminous flux of the light generated by the LED chip is often desirable.
The total luminous flux generated can be increased by increasing the operating current of the LED chip. However, this increases the risk of a failure of the LED chip on account of current-dictated degradation, i.e. a damage to the semiconductor material as a result of the operating current being increased. Furthermore, the heat loss produced usually rises with the operating current, and has to be dissipated from the LED chip by means of complicated measures in order to keep down the risk of a failure of the LED chip.
Also, the active area of an LED chip can be enlarged in order to achieve a higher total luminous flux. As a result of this, the current density and the heat loss to be dissipated per area could be kept constant even in the case of a high total luminous flux.
An enlarged active area can be achieved, in one instance, by means of an areal arrangement of a plurality of components—LED chips in a housing. However, the space requirement of modules of this type is comparatively high and the packaging density of LED chips and the luminous exitance (luminous flux generated per active area) are, by the same token, comparatively low.
In order to enlarge the active area it is possible, in another instance, to enlarge the lateral area of the LED chip. However, enlarging the area of the LED chip entails an increase in the risk of the LED chip having a fabrication-dictated defect.
Defects of this type may impair the function of the LED chip or even render it totally unusable. By way of example, such defects may lead to a reduction of the luminous efficiency on account of radiationless recombination (e.g. surface recombination) or to a short circuit of the active zone of the LED chip. Fabricating defect-free semiconductor layer sequences provided for the formation of optoelectronic semiconductor chips is very complicated from a present-day standpoint.